Leclerc "surprised" by Australia pole after "messy" build-up
Leclerc "surprised" by Australia pole after "messy" build-up
Charles Leclerc has expressed his surprise at taking pole position for the Australian Grand Prix after conceding to have "always struggled" at Albert Park.
Leclerc secured his second pole of the F1 season with a stunning one minute 17.868s lap to topple championship rival Max Verstappen by over a quarter of a second.
For the Ferrari driver, the result was made all the more special given his previously difficult relationship with the Melbourne circuit.
"It felt good, even more, because it is a track where I have always struggled before in the past as a driver," explained Leclerc.
"I don't know, it probably doesn't fit me as well and this weekend we really worked hard.
"It was a bit messy, the free practice three session, for me and I managed to do some good laps but not everything together and in Q3 I managed to put everything together so it feels great and I'm very happy to be starting on pole tomorrow."
Leclerc cautious of Red Bull race pace
Ferrari and Red Bull have been evenly matched in the opening two races of the season with Leclerc victorious in Bahrain and Verstappen in Saudi Arabia.
Across the Australian weekend so far, there has been again little to separate the two teams.
"The car is nice to drive but Red Bull were very quick in FP2 doing the long runs," added Leclerc.
"But to be honest, we were quite surprised by our pace in qualifying, so everything is possible.
"We just need to do a good start and then hopefully we can keep that first position."
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
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